No One Has to Be Alone
by sunnywinterclouds
Summary: If there is one thing in this world that Toothless knows, it's being alone.


If there is one thing in this world that Toothless knows, it's being alone.

Oh, there are other things. Hunting, for example. Toothless is an exceptional hunter. His speed, his stealth, his skill – he'll never go hungry. And flying – he's the fastest of any dragon there is. He's smaller and sleeker and _better_ and flying is so much of a second nature to him that he can't imagine ever not being able to.

But being alone is something else all together.

It's not a skill, really. Not an instinct. Not something that he was born with, not something that came naturally, not something that he learned over time. It just… was. Just is. Toothless is alone. There is no reason, not really, but he is.

He could, of course, attribute it to being the world's only Night Fury. He grew up with a family of Gronkles, and they were so large and dense and _wrong_ that he could never connect with a single one of them. He wasn't really alone then, not at all, but he still _felt_ like he was and isn't it the thought that counts?

From the day he leaves the nest, he is surrounded by other dragons. Nadders and Nightmares and Zipplebacks and Thunderdrums and Skrills and _everyone_ but he is never really _with_ them. He is there, and so are they, but they chatter and click and fly loop-de-loops around one another and he just _watches_ wondering how they can do that. How they can be with others and _not_ be alone.

Toothless doesn't like being alone. And he doesn't _dislike_ being alone. It's just a part of him. He wonders, of course – he's ridiculously curious about what it's like to be able to connect like the others do, but it doesn't make him _sad_ that he can't. He's never been able to – he's not sure if he _wants_ to. He's not sure if what they can do is a good thing or a bad thing, for all he knows he's better off being by himself, but he wonders and he imagines and he likes to think that it would be a good feeling to have someone.

Everything changes the day he meets His Boy.

Just like that, his power of flight is gone. Ripped away. Vanished. It's _never coming back_, and he is going to die in this cove and he is going to be completely alone and for some reason that thought _scares_ him and he just wants to get out and soar through the skies and _where is his tail, what happened_? How is he never going to fly again? How is he never going to lift himself up gracefully and easily and brush the softness of the clouds with the tips of his wings, how, how, how? _How?_

His Boy.

That is how.

He took his tail away, Toothless knows that. He said it when he found him, _I did this,_ and Toothless wishes now that he hadn't spared him because he _can't fly anymore_. But the boy redeems himself, he brings him food and draws lines in the sand and Toothless is shocked because when the boy is here he doesn't feel quite as alone as he always has.

When the boy is around, he feels like maybe he connects.

And then he can _fly_ again. He quickly attributes it to the boy, because his tail only works when the boy is there, and it is so amazing to feel the sky again that he doesn't even notice how different it is when the boy is with him.

For the longest time, he doesn't even notice that in order to fly he has to put his absolute, undoubting trust in the boy, and he does.

He trusts him.

And when he's up there in the clouds, spreading his wings and soaring past the trees below him, he doesn't feel alone.

… … …

He's not sure when _the_ boy makes the transition into _His_ Boy. He just… does. He is petting a Terrible Terror, looking at him with wonder in his eyes, and Toothless feels something inside of him rumble a bit. He doesn't like that Terror cozying up to him, because that's _His _Boy and he shouldn't be with other dragons.

That's when he realizes it, that he doesn't only trust this boy, His Boy, but he _cares_ for him. He connects.

And he notices the _difference._ When the boy is gone, he feels like he always has, alone and cold and small. And when the boy is _there,_ he feels this warmth, this happy expanding feeling inside of his chest, and he knows now that he should have been envying everyone else from the start because he finally _finally_ knows what love is and it is beautiful.

And terrifying.

He hears His Boy screaming, and suddenly everything is freezing. He's doused in this ice cold horror, because His Boy is in danger and he's going to _die_ and he is going to be alone again but it will be worse because now he knows what it's _like_ to have someone and he can't let that happen, no, no, no, he has to save His Boy.

He does what he was sure he couldn't.

He gets out.

And he _knows_, he _knows_ he couldn't do that before, but there is something about caring and loving and not being alone that gives him strength. Strength to save His Boy, strength to fend off the Nightmare and then the monstrous humans that are so different from His Boy that he's not even sure how they can be of the same species. And His Boy is telling him to _go, go, get out of here _but he _can't,_ he can't because His Boy is still in trouble and nothing is ever going to happen to him as long is Toothless is around.

And then the ruthless Vikings have him, not His Boy but _him,_ and he is alone again. Where is His Boy? He saved him from being alone before, he can do it again. Can't he? Where is His Boy? He misses him. He doesn't like to feel cold. He worries that the big human has hurt him. Where is His Boy? He's sure that if he was gone – not just gone, but _gone_ gone – he would feel it, but he's still not here. Where is he?

Where is His Boy?

He wants him back.

The thought of not getting him back _hurts,_ physically and truly causes him pain, and he doesn't want to feel that.

And then he is drowning, he can't _breathe_ and it's not as bad as missing His Boy but it's still awful. And then His Boy is there, and he is so desperate to save him that Toothless things maybe, just maybe, he's been alone for a while too. His Boy hates the thought of losing him, too, and that's why he is there.

They're both alone, but they're alone _together,_ and then they're not alone anymore.

His Boy is gone, then, and then somehow they are _both_ saved by the cruelest Viking of all, and then they're in the air again and despite the impending death and doom and horror he can't help but feel like this is the best that he has ever flown. The most free.

He thought, before he met His Boy, that his skills in the sky were rivaled by no other. He thought he was the best, not just the best out of them all, but the best that he could ever _be_.

He is better with His Boy.

Somehow, and he's not sure how, but he is stronger when he has His Boy.

And then he _doesn't_ have His Boy, he is plunging towards the flames and Toothless knows, he knows that if he falls he is going to lose him, and he can't lose him and as the fire envelopes them both he is comforted in the fact that His Boy is safe in his wings, and as long as His Boy is safe with him he will never be alone again.

He has His Boy, and when he wakes up days later he is the happiest he has ever been.

There is peace, and there is friendship, and there is His Boy. And His Boy is safe, and Toothless is safe, because they're going to protect each other at all costs _forever._

And they will never be alone again.

**so I took my title from a Land Before Time song. deal with it.**


End file.
